Oakland Pot Club to Fight Order to Close / Judge wants doors locked tomorrow

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, October 15, 1998

1998-10-15 04:00:00 PDT OAKLAND -- Advocates of an Oakland medical marijuana club vowed yesterday to fight a federal judge's shutdown order, set for as early as tomorrow, and warned of a public health emergency if the dispensary closes.

"I think there's a potential for human deaths because of our inability to operate in the city of Oakland," said Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.

At a news conference, club members lambasted Tuesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who rejected arguments by the cooperative that it be allowed to sell marijuana in defiance of a federal lawsuit because of "medical necessity" and one's right to ease suffering.

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Breyer ordered federal marshals to evict tenants, take inventory and padlock the club, located in a nondescript building on Broadway in Oakland's downtown, any time after 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Stunned by the ruling, club members said they feared the thought of having to buy marijuana on the street. They were particularly incensed that Breyer ordered the shutdown while at the same time acknowledging there would be "human suffering."

Ima Carter, 56, suffers from fibromyalgia, which produces muscular pain. "I'm totally devastated by what the judge did," she said through tears. "He might as well just shoot me in the head, because without marijuana I can't survive."

Robert Raich, an attorney for the club, said he plans to appeal on the basis that Breyer "got some key facts wrong." Raich said, "If his ruling were to stand, it would be a tremendous miscarriage of our judicial system."

Oakland City Councilman Nate Miley said he plans to ask a council committee to declare a state of emergency to shield the club from closure. Miley also said he wants the city to consider becoming a dispenser of medical marijuana.

The city has already taken action on the issue. In August, Oakland designated club employees as "officers of the city," which grants them immunity from prosecution, but Breyer rejected that argument. In July, the city passed a policy allowing medical marijuana users to store 1 1/2 pounds of the drug at home.

On Tuesday, Breyer found the cooperative in contempt of his May injunction prohibiting the club and five others in Northern California from distributing marijuana. The clubs opened in the wake of Proposition 215, the 1996 voter-approved medical marijuana initiative.

Breyer noted that on May 21, two days after his injunction, an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent entered the Oakland club and witnessed 14 marijuana sales on the day the club invited the media to document the transactions.

In his ruling, the judge rejected the club's argument for staying open: that medical marijuana is needed to save lives and ease suffering, a constitutional right.

"Defendants have failed to proffer evidence that each and every person to whom they distributed marijuana needed the marijuana to protect such a fundamental right," Breyer wrote.

Since a federal civil lawsuit was filed in January, two pot clubs in San Francisco and one in Santa Cruz have closed. Two others, one in Fairfax and one in Ukiah, have refused to shut down.

On Tuesday, the judge did not address the Ukiah club, nor did he order the closure of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax. But he granted a jury trial on the issue of whether marijuana was actually sold there on May 27, when a DEA agent conducted surveillance -- from outside.

William Panzer, attorney for Marin Alliance, said the government's evidence of illegal sales at the Fairfax and Ukiah clubs was inadequate. He voiced confidence that pot clubs would prevail.

"Marijuana is one of the safest substances known to mankind," Panzer said. "The scientific evidence is overwhelming that it has medical value."

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